Welcome to Boxwood Cottage!

So glad that you found me! My blog is about everything I love like gardening, decorating my home & garden and crafting. Although I'm from Germany I write my blog in English so that hopefully every visitor can read it. Hope you'll stay a while and will leave me a comment so that I know that you were here! xoxo Carola

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Oh my goodness like every time I can't decide what to post on my blog. I'm torn between pictures of my garden, decorations, swaps and crafts. What is it that you like to see best/mostly? Well for this time I decided to make this post a good mixture out of it all lol

Okay so I've started with a decorated corner of my deck in the picture above!

Chantal e- mailed me through flickr that she saw a comment that I made weeks ago under someone elses picture of a book called "The Country diary of an Edwardian Lady" and that she had a spare copy of that book which she'd like to send to me just because she loves my blog and cause she wanted to share it. Wow random act of kindness (RAK) or what? Of course I was delighted and I still am! :D Thank you so much Chantal, you and another kindred soul have made my weekend! I was suffering from a bad migraine and couldn't do much, so your parcel was very soothing for me!

It is such a beautiful nature diary through a whole year with the most enchanting pictures of plants and butterflies etc.pp all hand painted by the author Edith Holden back at the beginning of the last century. Im so happy to have my own copy now! The gorgeous foxglove below is just one example of the prettyness of the pictures, I'll sure post more pictures out of this treasure book from time to time:

Well they came in another wonderfully lavender smelling parcel last weekend from my dear friend Nature Girl from Canada. We had a magazine swap and the sweet heart that she is she has popped some more goodies in the envelope. I love everything but the birds really make me happy! I so love birds and she just knew it! Thank you so much NG! xox

Click on picture to enlarge and see more details!

Further I like to share with you some pictures of what is blooming in my little garden at the moment:

Above you can see "Lavatera arborea" a real big plant, almost to big for my border, but it has so many beautiful blooms!

Above is Clematis "Cardinal rouge" which is still blooming pretty as well on my blue trellis and my "Augusta Luise" rose in the photo below is still having pretty flowers too:

Then there are the magnificent sweet peas blooming in my border close to the rose arc now:

The collage on canvas below I've made for Jenny's bits and pieces swap. It's going out to my swap partner Anastasia in Sydney this week. If you are interested to see the collages of all the other participants of this swap go have a look at the flickr group here

And I made another crown, or this I think it became a bit more tiara like. My swap partner Ele had the choice between 3 crowns now and has decided she wants the golden King crown I've shown in my last post though. I'll show you pictures of what I'll get from my swap partners when I've received their parcels. There is also a flickr group for this swap of Holly Doodle, seehere

Have a fabulous summer time everyone oh and winter time of course for those of you living down under! And leave me some comments please so that I know that you were here! Thank you and see you in July!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I've finally gotten around to put my 3D magnetic collage tins up in my Etsy shop this morning, here are a few examples close up:

Further I've finished two crowns for the Crown and Tiara swap, I've mentioned in my last post. I just wonder why my crowns always look more like pope hats?? I'm not sure if one of them is good enough to send it to my swap partner Ele. I think I'll have to make another one, somehow more tiara like.

This crown is two sided and you can chose the side you like better to wear or show up:

Andrea has kindly send me my two fave US crafters magazines along with lot's of other beautiful goodies, like several sheets of her gorgeous vintage wallpaper, millinery flowers, velvet ribbons antique cabinet photos, vintage playing cards etc.pp! I totally love every bit! Thanks a lot Andrea! Oh btw I figured it took so long because it was opened by our customs duty. Who knows how long they needed to read through my magazines ;-) Anyway it was a pleasure to swap with you! I guess my parcel to you is still on it's way, but I hope it'll arrive at your door steps soon and that you'll love it as much as I do mine!

Here are some more close up photos of the goodies dear Andrea has sent to me! I can't wait for Andrea's webshop "One hundred wishes" to open soon, cause she makes the most wonderful creations with paper and vintage embellishemts one can imagine!

Lastly I like to show you a great find, which I came across recently. A very pretty wallpaper book from 2006. not vintage so of course, but nevertheless it has lot's of really gorgeous papers in soft lovely colors with toile de jouy, vichy caro, fleur de lys, polka dots, roses and other pattern, just everything a girl loves! :D If only I could stay at home all day and craft *sigh*

Then there is also something very sad which has happened in our blogging community lately. On Sunday our dear blogging friend Daisy Lupin aka Hilary from England has all of a sudden passed away after a short virus affection of some kind. That really came to me, as I'm sure for everyone else who knew dear Hilary as a big shock! I still can't believe it! Her daughter Lydia is keeping us updated through Hilary's blog: http://catsinthekitchenflorainthegarden.blogspot.com/ about what has happened. Bless Hilary, her family and friends which I send all my sympathies!

Let's enjoy every minute of our lives, now even more as before, as it can be over much too fast!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Hello dear readers, I know it has been a long time again and my only excuse is that we have too good weather to stay in the house, oh and I'm back at work since last Thursday too and in the late evenings I was busy crafting. Please be patient if the pictures are taking long to load, just open another window keep surfing and come back here when they have all loaded, sometimes it helps to refresh the site too. I promise you won't regret it! Also if you don't like "eye candy" you don't have to wait ;-)

Click on the picture above to enlarge it to it's full size and see all the details, I took it yesterday!This is what NG's friend and neighbor TWT has sent to me for our magazine swap! Thank you dear TWT the magazine is beautiful and I also love all the extras you've added! They are perfect for a gardener! Not sure if I'll ever be able to touch dirt with those gorgeous party garden gloves ;-) Btw your's and NG's swap enevelopes are on it's way to Canada!

Then I'd like to show you what I was busy creating lately! These are magnetic 3 D collage tins, which I'm going to add to my little empty Etsy shop this week! They will add a nice romantic touch to your fridge or any other place where magnets will hold!

I did my best to make them look pretty from the in- and the outside, using German Dresden borders, satin ribbon and vintage lace borders etc.pp!

I'm going to take close up pics of every magnetic tin for the Etsy shop descriptions though!

Then I was experiencing what else I could create with paper and mixed medias that I haven't seen around the crafting and blogging world before and I came up with the "apple collage" above and the "Victorian shoe" below which I could add to Etsy too if someone is interested in it:

This next picture I took at my mum's last week, just because I thought it's pretty eye candy:

Well then in the here calles "rose month of June" I can't resist but posting more actual pictures of some of my favorite roses in my garden, cause I feel they have just reached the high point of their beauty:

P.S. Have you seen the new little banner pics on the right, in my side bar? I've signed up to two fabulous new swaps this week. First is Jenny's "Collage bit's and pieces swap" and the other one is Holly Doodles "Crown and Tiara swap". Can't wait to find the time to start! :D

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Dear blogging friends and readers, thank you for your patience and all the lovely comments you've made to my last posts, I know I'm long overdue with a blog update, meanwhile we have even reached the beautiful month of June! I was so busy last week, among other things I've had a "Good Charlotte" concert journey to Hamburg with my daughter (having another one tomorrow), so here is a big update post which will hopefully make up for the lack of blogging lately!

Mail is coming in and going out constantly these days. Above on the left side you see a piece of an envelope filled with magazines I've sent out to Jen Duncan last week! Jen thank you so much for the Somerset Life magazine, I love it and all the HomeCompanion mags from 2006, it was big pleasure reading them in my deck chair! I hope you'll get your envelope soon too! On the right side you see a paper back I've picked from the etsy shop of my very creative blogging friend Sandy, love your angel stamp on the envelope too Sandy! Not sure if I'll be ever able to use up your beautiful vintage wallpapers, but they are a great addition to my growing collection with papers from Jen, Heather, Lilia, Linda and now you, only with getting a wallpaper pack from Pam I had no luck so far, they are selling out just like a whirlwind each time!

Then in the picture above ( click on it to enlarge and see all the details) I like to show you the amazing amount of goodies, dear Cari Krafthas sent to me for our spring swap. Je spoiled me endlessly with magazines, vintage children books, 3 packs of glitter letters, a whole vintage scrabble game, collage scraps and papers, 2 tea dye ink pads, 100dreds of bingocards and so on and she also took one of her lovely polka dotted buckets in her two! parcels she's sent me and of course the beeswax bird spring ornament which had started our "little" swap lol Cari you are a real sweetheart and this swap was the biggest pleasure for me :D! See my daughter and I have already used some of the glitter letters (glitter is scattered all over our house now lol) in a big wall collage we did together last week. She chose the words "Motivation Proclamation" according to a song from her fave US Band "Good Charlotte":

Now as requested by TWT and some other fellow garden bloggers I like to show you some more view pictures of my garden! Firstly a view of my biggest border with the rose arc in the middle:

This is the right sight of the big border:

This gorgeous, very light pink peony is growing there in the corner under my hanging baskets and it made me very happy because it has never bloomed before:

Then this is to the right side of the big border where the self seaded foxgloves are blooming right now:

Hope you don't mind a few close ups of the border, here you see my white lupine with catnip and Eden rose:

My faves in the border at the moment are definitly the blue of the cat nip (Nepeta faassenii Walkers low) with the soft pink of the Eden85 rose:

But I also love the blue of the Veronica and the white Foxgloves with the dark red filling in the background!

One last blue shot of the big border:

I took this next view shot standing in my neighbours garden, this is her view into my garden at the moment:

In the foreground is my Augusta Luise rose blooming and in the background the Clematis Pilu climbing up the tree:

Augusta Luise close up (click on the picture to enlarge it and see her full beauty), just blooming behind the boxwood hedges in my right hand border:

See my freshly cut boxwood border on the right side of my garden, which means opposite of the big border:

I love taking pictures of my freshly cut boxwood hedges, this is the entry in the way into my neighbors garden:

You surely know that I love the "vertical gardening" (see the rose arc, the blue trellis, the tree climbing clematis, the hanging baskets etc, so when I saw this pink pot ladder which you can place where ever you like in the garden I just couldn't resist it. I had it on my patio first but now I placed it on the tree which stands exactly on the boarder to my neighbor Ullas garden and I like it much better there. My right hand neighbors can now see the pink ladder right through my rose arc which looks really great:

This next photo is the view when I stand on my deck at the moment. I took these pictures in the evening, the "blue hour", two days ago:

My big allium balls have grown more and are still growing, here's a close up (see our cat Sammy sneaking in the picture above lol):

I took this next view photo standing back at the cottage wall, in the right corner of my big deck:

This is the corner of the deck, I was standing when I took the pic above. I love my blue delphinum corresponding so well with the pinkish red of the "Wenlock" rose:

Well this was possibly my longest post ever, so I better stop here! I hope the pictures will not take you too long to load, if so you could possibly open another window meanwhile they load and come back when they are finishes loading?

TWT I hope this post has also helped you to locate what is growing where in my little garden!

About Me

I started blogging in September 2005 first only about my garden and home/interior decorations, then I discovered the world of art & craft blogs and was so captivated that I had to get involved. I learned a lot of Mixed Media and Altered Art Techniques and to master the art of soldering which opened a whole new and fascinating world to me. Meanwhile Boxwood Cottage is simply about everything I love, especially all things crafty as well as flea marketing & antiquing, interior design with old & vintage objects and gardening of course oh and not to forget I love friendship swaps. Since 2011 I'm vegan and quite passionate about it, but that has the potential to fill a whole other blog, for which I don't have the time right now and there are already so many vegan blogs to find in the www. If you like to contact me just email me to
Carolinchen39athotmaildotcom